VESSEL REVIEW | Mpungu – Ugandan operator acquires Ro-Ro for Lake Victoria routes

A new freight-only Ro-Ro vessel ordered by Uganda operator East Africa Marine Transport (EAMT) was recently handed over by local shipbuilder SECO Marine.

Mpungu has a length of 96 metres (310 feet), a beam of 18 metres (59 feet), and capacity for up to 1,000 tonnes of containerised cargo or the equivalent of 21 trailers. The vessel will be operated in Lake Victoria, transporting freight on a scheduled service between Port Bell in Uganda and Mwanza in Tanzania.

The vessel was designed in compliance with Bureau Veritas class rules by Kenya-based Southern Engineering Company (SECO), SECO Marine's parent company, with support from Danish naval architecture firm OSK Design.

The main objective of the EAMT vessel project is to improve the marine transport system of Lake Victoria, as the efficiency of transport links is regarded as one of the key components of international competitiveness of exports and economies as a whole. Therefore, by improving the efficiency of the overall supply chain in the region, the project will increase the yield of exports, decrease the cost of imports for each country, and promote regional trade.

Enhancing trade between Uganda and Tanzania

A Ro-Ro configuration with bow and stern loading/unloading ramps was selected to maximise flexibility and operational efficiency. Current general cargo vessels can spend days in each port as block stowage of general cargo takes a considerable amount of time to load and unload, while a Ro-Ro vessel instead takes hours to load and unload. This means that a Ro-Ro vessel operating on a liner service can spend more time steaming between ports earning revenue, and less time loading and unloading.

The vessel can also accommodate general cargo, which is to be loaded on specialised trailers and rolled on and off the vessel like trucks. The Ro-Ro configuration also means that only minimal, if any, improvements in the ports are required to accommodate the service.

South Africa-based logistics company Grindrod will operate the vessel on behalf of EAMT on the Port Bell-Mwanza route at a rate of two or three round trips per week. Each one-way journey lasts between 17 and 18 hours, whereas travelling by road between the two destinations could take three or four days.

Among other things, the faster transits made possible by the vessel will help significantly reduce instances of spoilage, making it an ideal means of transporting fresh produce and other perishable goods.

Viable alternative to road transport

The vessel will allow trucks to avoid circumnavigating Lake Victoria and concentrate on efficiently transporting goods between lake ports and their customers, thus helping reduce road congestion that could otherwise hamper trade in the region.

Additionally, by taking the lake service, truck operators can sleep while the vessel is transiting the lake, allowing for more efficient use of trucks (which would otherwise be parked when drivers timed out on rest period restrictions).